Why it is in news?

• If proxy voting is meant to make it easier for NRIs to exercise their franchise and save up on travel costs, then why shouldn’t the same facility be extended to a migrant worker within India?
• This and many other questions were raised at a meeting of the Parliamentary panel on External Affairs headed by  ShashiTharoor.
• The committee was briefed on “Voting Rights to NRIs”
• The Cabinet in August last year had cleared an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, which allows NRIs to vote by proxy, a facility only available till now to armed personnel and certain offices notified by the Election Commission.

Fears of misuse

(Criticism of the move)

• Proxy voting is open to manipulation.
• The government should have explored a technically sounder way to get NRIs to vote.
• If money can be transferred online then why not votes.
• They need to find a more robust mechanism,
• The panel members also asked how to have secret ballot in proxy voting.
• When the government is promoting e-banking then why not have e-voting. If e-banking is safe then e-voting too should be.
• Data shows that only 10,000 to 12,000 NRIs have voted because they do not want to spend foreign currency to come to India for this purpose.
• Incidentally, the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2017 was not referred to any standing committee.
• It was introduced in the Lok Sabha in the recently concluded winter session and has not yet been debated on.

Source

The Hindu